


2011: a space odyssey.

by hyzkoa



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, Nebula (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Protective Gamora (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-03-07 02:24:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18863830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyzkoa/pseuds/hyzkoa
Summary: It's not that impressive the amount of hits a God can take without so much as reacting to it, so there is nothing of praise to give to a half Jotunn runt who has barely survived after his (literal) fall from Asgard's royalty.He is but another head to lock onto the aim of her gun, and yet somehow Nebula finds herself co-piloting to Gamora while this Loki guides them through the galaxy -- World Tree, same thing -- with promises she barely believes of an Infinity Stone.Or basically: Nebula, Gamora & Loki's space adventures.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> a4 is out and the sun never did that thing where it shone on us so im going back to 2011 pre-A1 loki to cope

He let go.

But as far as those words concerned, it only applied to the action. Figuratively, he had yet to let go. He pretended to; as a master of lies, it wasn’t hard to fool anyone with his words and charm, but he could only do so much when the target was he, himself. 

There was no time to weep, however, no time to revise the events that had led him wandering across the darkest places of all the nine realms. And as much as he’d love to believe that surviving kept his mind busy, the memories of ever thinking that had occurred in the Bifrost would chase him whenever he closed his eyes.

A syllable echoed in his mind. 

‘I could’ve done it father.’

‘No.’

His brother’s scream haunted him in his dreams and nightmares.

He kept the sigh to himself, the emotions to himself, the pained expression to himself.  Absentmindedly he flipped the old dagger, stained with brown dried out blood, as he checked the wards around the area he was being paid to protect. ‘Paid’ in a very loose sense of the word; his salary was not to be held in a chain above ravenous, starving Bilgesnipes again. Though, that should be more than enough.

Someone was staring through what would be, in their eyes, an empty barren land. The woman looked through a device in her arm and looked up again, then around. Loki understood she had been sent here, and her coordinates didn’t make her budge from the spot even if there was nothing to see due to his spell. As he believed his magic, although weakened, to be strong enough to deceive the woman’s eyes, he pay no heed to her presence, merely twisting his open palm to cast an illusion upon the woman, making her believe she checked up all the perimeter without finding nothing of what she was looking for. At least, he did the bare minimum of his job as a  _ security guard _ .

She stood motionless as she walked around in the illusion, checking up the whole zone until she’d be satisfied. 

That was what was supposed to happen. She was supposed to walk away and tell her employer there was nothing to be found, that the Bilgesnipes and other disgusting creatures from all origins had broken  free and left nothing but bones, dust and unremarkably standard ruins behind which blended in with the decaying land; nothing to be found, nothing to report. That should’ve been the outcome of this scenario, but even that seemed to be too easy for the Norns that wove his fate in frail green threads that could break at any moment. He would have a word with Karnilla, that is, if he survived the journey to the base of the worlds, the root of Yggdrasil. 

First, he’d need to focus on his magic pulling through and not ending up with either a hole in his chest or a slitted throat, depending on the woman’s mood given that he could see a large variety of weapons that he was sure she wasn’t limited to. That arm left arm looked equally dangerous. 

The minutes of her struggle stretched out, but now she was gritting her teeth, the lenses in her mechanical eye focusing and unfocusing in an odd way, almost as if she was glitching. She let out roars of anger mixed with pain as she seemed to be tearing her brain from Loki’s grip. Although he admired the resilience and loyalty to the woman’s purpose in this land, he would gain nothing from rewarding her efforts; he strengthened the illusion, his pained body struggling. 

The woman fell on a knee. He gripped his dagger, and whatever kind of noise that made had her snapping her head to his direction. A shaky hand, made of flesh, reached her waist band, slowly, trembling. She took the gun and, well, it wasn’t the worst scenario, but it wasn’t in his ‘top ten outcomes’ neither.

Screaming in anger, she started shooting with no real aim. Loki found himself lifting the illusion once the blasts threatened the protection spell casted around the shop’s front. 

His dagger disappeared in green lights and, without a word, he held his hands up in surrender.

“You’ve failed.” The woman still managed to sound menacing even while recovering from the pain Loki put her brain and her systems through. “They’ll kill you.”

Loki narrowed his eyes. She was not a mindless, blood-thirsty follower of a bigger master like the ones he’d stumble upon, and if she was part of a senseless fodder, she had honed her instincts and wit to highlight above the rest. She must be a favorite.

“And you won’t?”

“Undo the spell.” The woman ordered without missing a beat, barely letting Loki speak. Loki could see she was in a hurry.

“We could sort out an arrangem—”

“Undo the spell.”

“I can’t.”

With that, she started shooting again. She wouldn’t let go of the trigger anytime soon, whether her plan was to draw out his not-so-kind-and-understanding employers or wear his magic out, he didn’t need to find out to undo the invisibility spell. That should be enough to get her attention, to give her a face to glare at rather than a voice, but he didn’t pull down the protective wards. The blasts had already gotten enough unnecessary attention; he could hear the voices inside and the creatures underground roaring.

“What is it that you’re looking for? I’ll search for it, bring it back to you and you can leave back to your employer.”

“I don’t work like that.”

“And I’m not a security guard, but here we are.”

“You will die as one.” She shoved her gun to her waist band.

“Won’t you need your gun for that?”

“Yes.” She turned around. “A bigger one.”

Ah. That’s no good.

“Wait—”

Of course, she didn’t stop walking. And, knowing that her loyalty to her job outdid his, and that he wasn’t about to die defending a shabby looking shop in the dark alley of the realms, he decided the wise choice would be to leave her to do whatever she was here to do while he used that as a distraction to send himself as far away as he could.

If he didn’t feel like hurrying before, now he did; another one joined Nebula.

“I searched the other establishments. It has to be here.”

“I know. I have it handled.”

“The shop’s in the opposite direction.” She looked past Nebula’s shoulder. “And the security doesn’t look too tight.”

“He’s a witch. Weak, but not enough. Now leave.”

“He sent us together.”

“And I found the gem, so it’s mine to give it to him.”

The attackers arguing while in hostile territory had been a perfect chance for him to peace out, but Nebula’s words put his plans to a stop. Loki narrowed his eyes.  _ So that's what they were after _ . He hadn’t initially looked too much into how his employers had given him a sudden promotion from slave to a security guard without even having the chance of prompting that change himself, he was in a point of life where he really found it hard to care about what unmoral business was going on behind his back. He already had his fill of that in Asgard.

However, the talk of the gem being regarded with so much urgency and possessiveness on behalf of one of them wasn’t something to be apathetic to.

“If you’re looking for the stone, you might need a guide.” He smiled at the women now looking back at him with clear unreluctance, but he continued, “No matter how much I am thrilled by the idea of every single person in there murdered, the stone is no longer here.” 

“What do you gain from it?” The long-haired one asked him, though he had not much time to spew another lie before the other woman interrupted him.

“ _ What are you doing? _ ”

“I’m choosing the most efficient path to the stone.”

“ _ Gamora _ ,” oh, she was barely biting back her anger. Loki casually switched his glance to the one called Gamora, who didn’t miss a beat to stare back at him. That name rung a bell. “ **_I_ ** am getting the stone. I found it, it’s mine.”

“I’m already here, Nebula.” There was less anger in this one’s way to pronounce the other’s name. “Or do you want to try getting rid of me?”

“ . . . ” Nebula clenched her jaw, dark eyes glaring at Gamora with a mixture of rage and powerlessness. Loki ignored the memories this brought. “You’re not as smart as Dad says if you think you can trust him,” Nebula continued, “Just look at him. The  _ most efficient path _ is the same as always.”

“Ouch.” Loki raised his brows, his smile unwavering. “But fair enough. I wouldn’t normally trust murderous henchmen, neither. But I’m picking the better of two devils. As for what I gain from it… I’d say that a way out of this wasteland in your ship is a bargain.”

“Where to?” Gamora asked.

“Nornkeep.”

“That’s too far away.” Nebula interjected. 

“And you’re getting handed an infinity stone in silver platter when I could just alert the rest of your intentions. That’s my job, after all.”

“You don’t seem to care much for your job.” Nebula was hard to convince.

He stepped out or the range of the shop’s protection wards, his hands up for the other to see as he emphasized his point with this move. If Nebula had been alone, he wouldn’t have trusted for this to work any further than getting him shot right between the eyes, but the other—Gamora, didn’t sound like a fan of avoidable slaughter, even if she was known for a nickname that promoted anything but. “My employers aren’t very kind to the staff in here.” His appearance backed that up. His cape was gone; though he hadn’t given it up willingly so much as it had been ripped from him through the fall. His face was dirty and his hair was messy, greasy (-er than usual), and exhaustion was written all over his face. Not to mention the unruly visitors from Muspelheim couldn’t simply go on about their questionable business in these parts of the universe, and got a little bit too excited about seeing a Frost Giant that barely lived up to either of those words. He missed Asgardian weather, or not being surrounded by literal fire people.  All in all, Loki had seen better days. 

“And if this,” he gestured ceremonially at the state of his clothes, “is not enough for you; maybe the location will."

"Where is it?"

"Far from your reach. You won't be able to get there without--"

"Where is it?" Nebula repeated, one word away from beating it out of Loki.

"I'd feel more confident about sharing such information knowing that we have a deal."

"Alright." Gamora said. Nebula snapped her head in her direction, giving her a hard glare, though she did anything but grunt.

" _ Gamora _ ."

"Where is it?" Gamora asked, not as sharper as Nebula but with the same authority, if not more. 

"The Tenth Realm."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u to everyone that left comments in the first chapter! it means a lot, hope yall enjoy this chapter as well!

Contraxia felt like a good first stop; he was tired, and the pleasure planet was the perfect combination of mindless fun and icy cold weather to let him unwind from what had felt a great portion of his eternity, stuck in the underbelly of the universe. The  _ pilots _ didn't agree, though. Nebula was outright fuming, while Gamora just half-heartedly said this break wouldn't last long; they were there just to refuel, mainly. So, out of needing his head to remain on his shoulders, he let Nebula cut his break short when Gamora couldn't delay their leave any longer, for her own personal reasons. Loki found it amusing, the way they both had to work together while having different feelings toward their mission. 

The girls were, however, remarkably pleased when he set Omnipotence City as their next stop. Some of whatever dutiful version of happiness Nebula felt died in her eyes when he cleared up he needed to visit the Halls of All-knowing to secure the best distance in which to jump past the Odin-force that kept Heven in banishment; any instance in which he showed he didn't have all the answers made it clear she saw him as luggage to throw out of the ship. It would have already happened if Gamora wasn't there to be the calm one out of the three, so he felt safe enough to keep playing his part.

Once they parked in the city of knowledge, counsels and diplomatic boards Odin had never showed any interest in, Loki lost no time in waltzing right into the place that had left him awestruck many times before. When he was younger,  _ naive _ , and read stories on the Frost Giants without reflecting on the words on the paper at all. However grim his present might be now due to the recent revelations and events at his-- at Asgard, he could still feel himself lighten up when walking down the familiar passages formed by walls of books, even if he was coursing through a section called Hall of the Lost. At least his love for the place hadn't changed, hadn't been tainted. That, and well, he cruised the halls along like before. Thor wasn't a fan of reading as a hobby, or in general. Only did it when Odin brought him himself to learn about the gods that preceded him.

He was quickly surrounded by rows and rows of shelves packed tightly with books, scrolls, grimoires and just any other form capable of holding knowledge within itself for the comprehension of the halls' visitors. The shelves stood tall, reaching up to a ceiling that was hid behind the darkness that ate the upper rows of the impossibly tall shelves.

He remembered, how Odin had said that Thor drew his power from Asgard. Loki had assumed the same applied to him, but with a smile playing across his lips as he found one of his favorite texts as a kid, he jokingly wondered if this was the place he always drew strength from. 

With a light huff, he placed the book back onto the shelf, lest he dwelled on the joke too long before it became bitter with the weight of reality. He continued his search, appearing a few stories above the ground to see the upper rows, standing suspended on air while his eyes scanned the books before him. Any texts on hidden or blocked gateways between realms in which travelers had found themselves lost, yet lucky enough to come back would suffice. Maybe even vague mentions of Heven and its habitants' methods for kidnapping people from neighboring realms. One title caught his eye. ' _ Universal omens of disappearances _ :  _ the interpretations on winged women and missing men from one planet to another _ .'

Well, that seemed to add up with what he knew of Heven and the strings of nonesense he had heard from the shadows as Odin ranted on about _child-stabbing_ _feathered_ _wenches_. The rest of the conversation he was having with his crowd was more of a blur. 

He picked the book by the spine, but it seemed to fight back, and you could tell what kind of place this was when that didn't faze him at all. Sometimes it was because the books were packed too tightly against each other, other less fortunate times was because the book did, indeed, fight back. This seemed to be neither, as there were books missing around it and he had yet to feel any sharp pain in his fingers. Loki continued to pull. Then, the books on his right slid a few centimeters away, leaving a gap that lead him to someone on the other side waving a hand at him.

"I suppose you won't let go even if I ask nicely." The stranger said.

"You would suppose right."

"It's urgent."

"I will be thrown into a wormhole of space and time," again, "if I don't read this."

He hummed, eyes looking away. He tilted his head from one side to the other as if he was gauging which situation was a priority; his or Loki's. "That sounds urgent, too." The stranger wasn't letting go, though. "You…  _ sound _ ," he certainly  _ sounded _ as if he meant to say  _ 'look' _ , but corrected himself once he got a view on Loki, to which the Frost Giant, who wasn't feeling so  _ giant _ at the moment, raised a brow at, "more reasonable than most I've dealt with lately, so I hope we can solve this without tearing the place apart. Lord Librarian already gave me a lecture about others breaking his walls for the sake of dramatics. I hope not to be added on that list."

Loki remembered Thor, going from planet to another with his worthiness to show embodied by the hammer he could lift like it was a feather. One of the few times he came to accompany Loki to the library, and then flung Mjölnir a little to hard and had it tearing a hole through the wall before it came back to his hand. 

"Shall we share?" Loki offered, not looking forward to the knife that'd welcome him back to the ship if he lost too much time on a book that may or may not have useful information. "What I'm looking for shouldn't take long."

"Sounds like a deal." The voice now came from his side, the man floating next to him with a red cloak hanging from his shoulders, fluttering dramatically to the nonexistent wind inside the library. Interesting trinket, Loki thought as he took the book.

The stranger followed quietly, though the way he kept hovering above the ground next to him instead of  _ walking _ with him had Loki thinking maybe he shouldn't share the book at all. This was probably how Thor felt, when they were kids and raced through the courtyard and Loki would teleport himself way ahead of him, leaving no chance of catching up with him. The smile that had unconsciously creeped up his features fell as the other snapped him out of his reverie.

"You must like books a lot."

Loki ignored him and kept walking.

There were no tables, no reading sections in the Halls of All-knowing, just small clearances with piles of books scattered on the floor where one could read in proper lighting.

"What is it that you're searching for?"

"Hints on the entrance to the winged ones' realm. Or how to be kidnapped by them." Loki spoke freely and truthfully; Heven had already made enemies of every other realm. If anything, he could get something from making clear he was planning to steal from them.

"I suggest, then, new clothes and make up."

He raised a brow, choosing not to be offended by the remark a second later as a smirk formed on the fellow sorcerer's lips. "Aren't I pretty enough bait?" Loki joked, aware the Angels  _ took _ men of the likes of Thor, not someone that looked like they had crawled out of the sewer of the galaxy.

He hummed, head tilting and narrowing his eyes at Loki. "The Angels, they would disagree with me."

"I'll take it into consideration."

"Please don't. It'd be a shame to lose another sorcerer to them."

Loki glanced at him, but didn't push further. "What are you searching for?"

"Ways to prevent their kidnappings, since talking it over is clearly not a choice with them."

"Unpleasant ones, aren't they?"

"I'd rather they dropped their…  _ traditions _ ."

"I'll be sure to tell them to do a check up on their customs, if I haven't been turned into their breakfast by that point."

"This heist of yours, it isn't any time soon, is it?"

"What if it was?" It wasn't. Loki was, by all means, scheming the most reckless of his plots yet; never having been in Heven and lacking the wild card his brother with the trusty Uru is his hand was, but he wasn't _stupid_. It frightened him for a moment, how unplanned it all felt, how he left it at the mercy of the most savage realm in the world tree (and he's met his own kind). Heven continued its ways of isolationism and slavery. He doubted he could walk in, weakened, steal an infinity stone while also deceiving his partners in this heist, and walk out unharmed.

"You are in no state to go against Angels. You will, indeed, turn into their breakfast the moment you set foot in migration."

Loki didn't quite get the joke. It must've been written all over his face, as the stranger shook his head a little and rephrased.

"You will die."

"I'll spare you the lecturing, I'm aware that I'm in no state of going against an entire murderous realm," Loki said without the slightest worry in his voice, not entirely alien to the idea of a whole planet against him. Skimming through the pages of the book, seeing countless of name of people taken by the winged women that never came back, he didn't cast a glance to the man with the cloak.

"I'm not lecturing you."

"That's right." His eyes remained on the pages before him, but the corners of his lips twitched up on a smirk. "You are quite a few centuries too young for that."

"I'm trying to help you out, as much as you don't want to believe that."

"And why would you, stranger?" Loki finally looked up, snapping the book closed and locking eyes with the other as if to intimidate him.

The man smiled, though it died as quickly as it formed. His gaze didn't waver, not feeling any of the grandeur Loki hoped to scare him off with - or just not caring. "Because no one else would notice if you  _ actually _ died."

Loki's act broke for a second, long enough for the other to notice surely.

"Who are you?"

"Doctor Strange. Midgard's Sorcerer Supreme." 

Damn nosy Terrans.

"Does the Vishanti demand you to spy on other realms?"

"I take all precautions to keep mine safe. The Bifrost firing off in our neighbors direction naturally got my attention."

Fair enough. "Am I on Midgard's watchlist now?" Not that it mattered, that chunk of rock was never that interesting despite what Thor said of it. It always had an special pull on his brother, given his heritage, but Loki saw it as nothing else but water and dirt that hosted beings that fought really hard for the title of the worst the universe had to offer.

"When you come back from Heven to tell the tale, and hopefully to me, then I'll take you off it on parole."

"Doesn't seem that I gain much from sharing first-hand knowledge on the people of a realm there are no texts about."

"Wow." Strange said, a hand to his chest, feigning offense. "Coffee with a Terran isn't enough for you?"

Loki glanced at him with an amused smile. "What a Sorcerer Supreme you are. Your people must not know how you do your work, or else I'm sure they would have ignored the Vishanti and had you fired long ago." Flirting with the same threat he had admitted to spying on. Was that supposed to be charming?

"What about this, then; you tell me about Heven, their specific...  _ requirements _ for their slaves, and I will help you restore your magic. Quickly, so you can go on your urhent heist."

"And how, exactly, do you plan on doing that, Doctor Strange?"

"Blacksmithing and theft."

"Theft?"

"Have you heard of Ymir's Blood? The... _collectible_ , so to speak, not the actual blood of the jötunn when he was alive."

Loki's eyes narrowed, tilting his head as he looked in the doctor's expression for anything that told him he wasn't serious. A chuckle escaped him when he found none.

Truly, what Sorcerer Supreme he was. 

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter.](twitter.com/emhloki)
> 
>  
> 
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> 
> kudos and comments are good writer fuel.


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